All Around the World
by Rome Airi
Summary: Atlantis wasn't really lost. She was hiding. But now she's come back to the surface, and all her old friends are gone, replaced by newer countries that she decides to learn more about.
1. Chapter 1

Not expecting them to believe I was really Atlantis, I looked around at the world meeting. No one that had known me before I went into hiding were there anymore. Germany was clearly Germania's kin, Italy was obviously Rome's, and after some squinting I recognized Greece to be his mother's son. But they were all gone. All my friends...dead.

I'd muddle through, though. That's what I was known for, after all; endurance, adaptability. I adapted to hiding, I can adapt to being around people, countries again.

There were many more now. Missing so much made me feel old, but at least I was up and about again. I'd been resting for far too long.

"I thought that scientists disproved the theory of lost continents," said one of them with insane eyebrows. I hadn't remembered his name because he wasn't a direct descendant of one of my former friends.

"Science is wrong sometimes," I said. "False paths, among other things."

Germany looked like he had something to say, but would choose not to say it. Just like Germania. The resemblance was startling, almost impossibly close.

"Germania—sorry, I mean Germany—do you have something to say?"

"Germania would tell me stories about you sometimes," he said. "He said he missed you."

As I would now miss him. I supposed I deserved it, though. Going into hiding for so long. I sighed; you couldn't change the past. "I'm going to miss him too." I said it really quietly because I didn't particularly want anyone to hear. Setting that aside, I cheerfully bobbed my head up. "But all that is passed now. I want to get to know you all now."

"How do you propose you go about that?" said the man with the insane eyebrows.

I shrugged. "Spend a few days at their house, I guess?" That's what happened when I introduced myself to my old friends. I had to wear a chastity belt at Rome's though, the stupid pervert. Do you know how uncomfortable iron underwear is?

Suddenly kind of sad, I scolded myself for speaking bad of Rome. Yes, he was a pervert, and yes that was annoying, but when it really mattered he was my friend at the end of the day, and that's all that counts in the end, right?

Brought back to Earth by a jumping blonde sporting a bomber's jacket and glasses, I surveyed the room. None of the other countries seemed particularly objective, though a certain light-haired one with scary purple eyes and a white scarf sort of glared at me, but made no attempt to anything else.

The jumping blonde was shouting, "Come to my house first, dude! We'd totally have so much fun!"

"America!" the guy with the eyebrows scolded. "You just want to force all your terrible...everything on her!"

"I really don't care whose house I go to first," I interjected. "America, was that your name? America's is fine."

"Ha, England! See?"

Note to self: Eyebrows=England.


	2. America

America was expecting me, but it still took him some minutes to reach the door. "Hey, dude! I thought you'd be here later."

Instead of replying sarcastically for fear he'd misinterpret me, I just smiled and shook my head. "No. I came as soon as possible."

He let me in, and I slid my bag off my shoulder, mildly surprised that it hadn't fallen apart; it was so old. He told me to throw it anywhere, so I leaned it up against the side of the couch and wondered at how awkward this weekend was going to be. I didn't know America very well and his personality was kind of all over the place so I was having trouble socializing.

"So, what d'you wanna do?" he asked. I'd noticed that his language was very informal and almost...slouchy.

"I dunno. I wanna know more about your culture." I tried this strange speech pattern. I admit, I can see why it was very appealing.

America laughed, although I wasn't entirely sure why, so I deemed it irrelevant and disregarded it for the moment.

"How about a super scary movie that the hero can totally take?" he said somewhat uncertainly, sort of jittery.

If I was being honest, I didn't understand why this young crowd was into the whole movie thing. Maybe I just misjudged. "Yeah, sure."

I sat on the couch, which was extremely soft, and after he popped a disk in he fell onto the couch, eating a weird "burger" thing (what are these kids up to these days?) and drinking a paper cup full of dark liquid. Wine, maybe? He stuffed the burger under my nose. "Want to try it?"

Well, I did want to learn about his culture. So I took a bite.

It was disgusting. The texture of the meat was really startling, and it tasted like dying cow. Not DEAD cow, but still dying.

"So, d'you like it?" he asked. I grimaced and shook my head apologetically. He gasped, but handed the paper cup to me and told me to try that too. It was not wine at all, but definitely tasted good; it tasted very sweet and bubbled pleasantly. Soda, he had called it? I have to get in on this. I also tried what he called french fries, and they were okay.

By the time I had tasted all his food, the previews had run their course and it was at the starting menu. I think I'm getting pretty good at picking this vocab up.

"The Grudge?" I read off the screen.

"Y-yeah!" America said. Yes, he was certainly shuttering.

"Okay, press play," I said, glancing over at him shaking. I felt bad for him, so I attempted acting as his conscience for a moment. "You're not scared, are you? After all, you're the hero! The hero can do anything!"

He cracked a grateful smile and clicked a button on his remote.

During the course of the movie, he would rock back and forth hugging his pillow singing odd songs, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't entirely phased. At some point towards the beginning, he leapt toward me with a bone crushing hug. Poor thing was shaking, so I just hugged him back and he stayed like that for the duration of the movie. If only to freak him out, I would, on occasion, cheer for the scary girl even though she terrified the living daylights out of me.

The movie began drawing to an end, lalala the chick managed to get away from the scary monster thing, or so it seemed. When she popped up again, America's grip on my clothes increased by tenfold, and I could almost hear the threads hanging on to dear life.

"That w-wasn't so s-scary, was it..." America mumbled.

I simply patted his shoulder. "Not one bit." I'm probably not going to sleep tonight. Or ever again.

Although the prospect of teasing him by selecting another horror movie was amusing, I chose to go easy on him. "So, what else do you do around here?"

His grip loosened, and he slowly pulled away really subtle, like 'I totally wasn't doing that!' Aloud he said, "Uh, wanna try some video games?"

"Sure. What do I have to do?"

America slid unto the ground, in front of his rather impressive collection of DVDs, CDs, game systems, and the like. "I'm getting kind of sick of Call of Duty, so how about this?" He shoved a plastic box in my direction, but I had to reach to get it, so I just sat myself on the floor. Might as well, right?

On the box, it said, 'Lego Indiana Jones.' Lego? What on Earth? Was it like, a procedure to make yourself taller? And who was Indiana Jones? The cover picture did not match up to the title at all. "Sure, let's try it."

America took it back to put it in and laughed; again for no real reason. "I've played this so many times, I've got it memorized."

"We can play something else if you want," I said quietly, sort of trailing the last few words.

"Nah, it's my favorite." He handed me some plastic white things connected by a white wire. He pointed to the various buttons and whatsits and told me what they did. I've never played a video game before, so it was kind of overwhelming, but I was sure I'd get around just fine.

Some Hours Later ~

"Wait, how do I aim?" My gawd, video games were intense! I was surrounded by people in turbans, who were all trying to kill me with swords, while I tried to throw swords (snitched from them after I killed them) and break the bridge.

"Press and hold B!" America said loudly, aggresively hitting the B button himself, killing about five turban people.

I did so, and a small circle with crosshairs appeared on the screen, and I used the Wii-Mote to move the circle over the rope holding the bridge up. I let go uncertainly; this was the last rope but America had gotten the rest of them and I wasn't sure if I had done it right.

The rope fell to the river below. Yes! I had done it! As the game showed a cute animation of the scary bad guy falling from the bridge to signify the end of the level, I high-fived America.

"The story makes no sense to me, though," I said after calming down a bit. "There's no dialouge! What is even happening?"

America laughed as he sometimes did at nothing, but this time it was louder and longer. I asked him why, but he only laughed harder. "It's a movie series," he said between breaths. "Oh, that's right, you haven't seen them. Wanna?"

I giggled at my own ignorance, then nodded, but made the mistake of looking at the clock. "Oh my gawd, it's almost one in the morning!"

America got up, groaning a tiny bit. "So?" he asked over his shoulder, making his way to his kitchen. "Want a doughnut?"

"Sure," I replied, even though I had no clue what it was. Sounded awkward. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight. That Grudge movie freaked me out too much."

"Ha!" he forced. "It's okay, I'll protect you!" I mouthed his next words with him: "I'm the hero, after all!"

He came back over with two circular pastries with holes in their centers, as well as some soda. I accepted both of them, biting into the doughnut as he shuffled some things looking for Indiana Jones. He needed an organizational system, but I suspected that it would be wrecked in a matter of minutes.

I was surprised to find that the doughnut was quite plain, although the frosting on top was nice and sweet and chocoaltey. After several more minutes of searching, during which I changed in the bathroom to more comfortable pajamas, America finally found it.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark," I read off the cover. "They seriously lost the ark?"

"The ark actually existed?!"

I shrugged. "Well, yeah. They were making it right before I went into hiding. I only remember because they asked me for some Atlantian magma." You have no idea how hard it is to get that stuff. "What did they end up using it for, anyway?"

"Some religious stuff," America said, putting it in. "I don't really remember. I've seen this movie like a million times but I really just pay attention to the epic fights and stuff."

I sort of wondered if he remembered his own history. He seemed the type to forget. I'd ask him...I don't know...later.

America started humming the theme song along with the movie. I was pretty sure he'd be saying, or at least mouthing, the words along with the characters and a few moments of patience proved me right.

Despite the action going on in the movie and the fear of The Grudge, I found myself getting tired towards the end. Still, I stuck through till the end, then excused myself and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up at 11. Hardly morning, really, more like pre-noon. Regardless, I got up to see if America was up, but he wasn't, so I awkwardly sat on his couch, opened up a book England had gifted to me on the day of my arrival, and began reading. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone? Sounded like it was for a child. I'd give it a shot anyway.

Before I had a chance to, a certain blonde woke up, stumbling about, all energy from yesterday gone. "Want some coffee?" he slurred at me.

"Sure." I've heard of coffee, but I've never had it. It always smelled amazing though.

A minute or so later, he came back with two steaming mugs filled with dark liquid. I didn't ask how he made it so fast, because although I was pretty sure it was somewhat like tea, I wasn't an expert on the subject. I tasted it-kind of bitter, but not terrible.

America sat on the floor and dug at his pile of electronics. I put my book back in my bag. He pulled out a plastic rectangle that said "I WANT YOU" on the top. Well, that's not awkward at all.

He opened it up and revealed its many buttons, then began pressing them. Was it like a mini television? It certainly glowed like one. I sipped the coffee again. It tasted less bitter this time.

While waiting for the screen to do something, America got up to go to the kitchen again, presumably for food. "You don't like burgers, right?"

"Right." Wow, he remembered.

"I don't have much else," he said, still slurring a little. "How about a doughnut?"

"Sure." He came back over seconds later, a doughnut in one hand and a burger in the other, and handed the former to me. Then, he pressed some more buttons on his rectangle, and a rectangle popped up with an image of a white thing with red eyes. But it was moving...so it was like a mini television?

"Hey Tony!" America said brightly. "Sup?"

The white thing made some weird noises that I couldn't comprehend, but America seemed to. "Haha, no way!" he said. Hmm. This was interesting.

"Allie, come down here," America said. Allie? I've never heard that one before, but it was better than Atlas, which Rome used to call me, so it wasn't that bad.

I complied, assuming it was indeed me he was talking to. He shifted his rectangle so it focused more on me. "This is Atlantis," he said to Tony. Then he turned to me. "This is my alien, Tony."

"He's adorable," I said, because once you get past the creepiness, he was rather cute. Or maybe I just have a skewed perception of cute.

Regardless, Tony blushed really hard; cheeks almost matching the shade of his eyes. He responded with an odd alien squeak.

"What did he say?"

"Sorry, Tony, didn't quite catch that?" America seemed to be enjoying his friend's embarassment.

"Thank you," Tony said haltingly, like he wasn't used to English.

I smiled at him. "You're welcome."

He mumbled something, and America said, "Alright, later, dude," and closed the box on the screen, then closed his rectangle and turned back to me. "So, what now?"

"Could you tell me about your history, if it's not too much trouble?" I was somewhat nervous because I didn't know if it was painful for him.

"Well, I used to live with England..." he said quietly. "He was like a big brother to me, yaknow? And then he was never there, but when he was he was really unreasonable and I told him that but he didn't think so..." He took a deep breath. "So I chose my independence."

We were both quiet for a minute, then I said, "I...I had a big sister like that too..."

He looked shocked. "You did? Did she go into hiding too?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Her name was Lemuria. She was on the other side of you. She was so awesome at first, right? I did everything I could to be just like her. But then she just changed, got really violent and awful, and when I wouldn't follow in her footsteps, she got angry and threw me out." I still had the scar she left on my clavicle with the fishing spear I had made for her. "But...what happened after you left England?"

"Oh yaknow. Regular stuff that happens to all countries. Civil War, World Wars, et cetra." He looked sad for a moment, then smiled really brightly, which I had noticed was sort of his defense mechanism. "But hey, that's a total downer! This is your last day here, let's do something fun!"

Finishing my coffee, I chuckled at nothing in particular like he does and nodded.

"Dude, you sure you can't stay another night?" America asked as I began packing.

"Sorry, no," I said, carefully situating everything harmoniously in my bag. "Any suggestions as to where I might go next?"

"Meh, wherever," he said ungracefully. "You will come back soon, though, right?"

"Of course I will," I said. His taste in food was terrible, but I had grown to like the American. I slung my bag over my shoulder, ready to go. "Alright, I'm ready. Give me a hug?"

He gave me a quick farewell hug, and I set off to my homeland to decide where to next.


End file.
